The Reenmachine DOHC '67 Shelby Clone Convertible Progress

[SN65]

SNIP...

I say that another penny spent on horsepower over 350 is a waste of money if you actually want to drive the car frequently.

Well..... Yes and no.

We are making about 640 at the crank and we have logged about 6K since April of 06. Granted, we didn't up the HP from 390 until sometime in June or July.

That being said, I have never pushed the car to its limmit. Maybe we will if Hot Rod ever has their open track smackdown event. Or maybe we will take it on drag week next year.

Driving (these cars) is so much fun, I cannot ever imagine building a trailer queen. Drive um till they drop, rebuild um and drive it some more.

Glad to hear you are having fun. Enjoy it while you can.

 

[geostang351]

There's more info on the clusters in this thread:
http://eleanor.pro3i.com/showthread.php?t=580636
I have had great response and I'm kicking off production immediately.

Email me at [email protected] for more specific details.

Hey Reen, did you ever decide to put this into production? The thread above isn't loading.

How exactly did you wire it to the harness (I know you used a painless kit, but can this be done with a stock harness? How?

Thanks

 

[reenmachine]

Hey Reen, did you ever decide to put this into production? The thread above isn't loading.

How exactly did you wire it to the harness (I know you used a painless kit, but can this be done with a stock harness? How?

Thanks

I've made bunches of them both for Painless and for stock wiring. Once I get this move out of the way I'll be back in production again in January. The wiring is straigtforward but time consuming.

 

[geostang351]

I've made bunches of them both for Painless and for stock wiring. Once I get this move out of the way I'll be back in production again in January. The wiring is straigtforward but time consuming.

What will be your asking price? Just trying to decide to order one or give it a try myself.
Thanks

 

[67 Evil Eleanor]

What master cylinder did you use?

 

[1965stangcoupe]

Nice looking project! Wish I had the money for something like that I am wondering what type of undercoating you used in the fenderwells? have you had luck with with eastwoods chassis coating? Thanks

 

[FalconCoupe]

Got the NOS 2000 Cobra R IRS here and got it into the customer car today. It'll all come back apart again to clean it up and make it look brand new. It's NOS, but has been sitting around for 5 years so there's surface rust on the bare metal parts, dust all over it, etc. I also have to remove the aluminum uprights and do some very minor machining to make them work with the 13" big brake kit I'm putting on.

Sorry if my questions have already been answered in this post. I only found it yesterday and though I had a good look, 25 pages is pretty huge.

Im very impressed with the quality of your work and your website. The independent front and rear suspension modifications you you are doing to the red and green mustang are the same as I intend to make to my Australian 1976 Falcon coupe, which has a very simmilar unibody platform to a late 1960s early 1970s Mustang. My intentions for the car are as a nice street car, not circuit racer.

My questions relate to the irs conversions.

Do either the cobra irs or heidts irs come in kit form for the mustang?

Which irs do you think is a better unit, cobra or heidts? I'm curious as to why you used heidts on the red car and a cobra on the green car.

How difficult was the cobra irs to fit? Were there many modifications required either to the unit or the floorpan/chassis to make it fit?
I'm interested in the cobra irs as it appears very simmilar to the irs availible in Australia in the 1999 to present Ford Falcon. Distance and the exchange rate would make the heidts unit very expensive.

Thanks very much for your time

 

[bnickel]

Sorry if my questions have already been answered in this post. I only found it yesterday and though I had a good look, 25 pages is pretty huge.

Im very impressed with the quality of your work and your website. The independent front and rear suspension modifications you you are doing to the red and green mustang are the same as I intend to make to my Australian 1976 Falcon coupe, which has a very simmilar unibody platform to a late 1960s early 1970s Mustang. My intentions for the car are as a nice street car, not circuit racer.

My questions relate to the irs conversions.

Do either the cobra irs or heidts irs come in kit form for the mustang?

Which irs do you think is a better unit, cobra or heidts? I'm curious as to why you used heidts on the red car and a cobra on the green car.

How difficult was the cobra irs to fit? Were there many modifications required either to the unit or the floorpan/chassis to make it fit?
I'm interested in the cobra irs as it appears very simmilar to the irs availible in Australia in the 1999 to present Ford Falcon. Distance and the exchange rate would make the heidts unit very expensive.

Thanks very much for your time

www.dvsrestorations.com has the Cobra IRS kits. i can't speak for certain but i'm pretty sure Reen would tell you the Cobra unit is the easier unit to install as the Heidts kit takes some fabrication to install, it's not really a bolt in kit where the DVS kit is pretty much bolt in. both units have their goos and bad points, the heidts kit is based on the Jag IRS but uses a 9" diff, it has no actuall upper control arms instead it utilizes the half shafts as the UCA. the Cobra unit has upper control arms and a bit better geometry but is a heavy pig and uses an 8.8" third member which isn't quite as strong as the 9" and also isn't as easy to change gear ratios.

 

[reenmachine]

Well that pretty much covers it. The Heidt's kit is sexier but much more work to put in. The Cobra IRS has OEM reliability and engineering and is basically bolt-in with the DVS kit. I doubt the DVS kit will work with your Falcon IRS though. After driving both, I would also say that the Heidt's unit is more comfort/ride oriented and the Cobra IRS is more performance oriented.

 

[FalconCoupe]

Well that pretty much covers it. The Heidt's kit is sexier but much more work to put in. The Cobra IRS has OEM reliability and engineering and is basically bolt-in with the DVS kit. I doubt the DVS kit will work with your Falcon IRS though. After driving both, I would also say that the Heidt's unit is more comfort/ride oriented and the Cobra IRS is more performance oriented.

Thanks for your help guys

 

[65DOHCStang]

More pics

Reen, I have been following your 67 build and looking at your website since I am in the middle of a similar project. I just installed a Heidt's front end in my 65 Mustang and am lining up and measuring for the engine mounts. My engine is closest to a N/A 01 Cobra (closest because it has an 01 Cobra crank, heads, cams, electronics; block is .020 over Teksid, pistons are Mahle, rods are Manley, ARP studs, etc. My intake of choice is an Aviator, since it has variable geometry runners for good low-end torque and short runners for high end HP. I had hoped to get it under a stock hood, but that doesn't look possible - I don't like cowl hoods on old Stangs).

I would really appreciate it if you could show some detail shots of your engine mounts. You have done such a great job on everything else, you had to do the mounts first-class as well. Thanks.

 

[reenmachine]

Been a while since an update...

The 'vert is at KAR in Columbus, OH for a few finishing touches and to wait out the snow for some shows this spring & summer. No, we didn't cave to the temptation to do donuts in the snowy parking lot!

We were going to do a white convertible top, but the color (creamy) clashed with the bright white/pearl stripes, so we went with good ol' black.

Side stripes, emblems, and a few exterior trim pieces and we're there.

 

[Edbert]

I know you'll do the trim around the back of the top, but what about the rocker peices? Decided on what kind of wipers you'll use?

That parking lot is so clean it almost looks like you painted it white

 

[reenmachine]

I know you'll do the trim around the back of the top, but what about the rocker peices? Decided on what kind of wipers you'll use?

Yes on the top trim, but no rocker mouldings. It'll have GT500 stripes. It will have wheel lip mouldings though. I was planning on stock-type wiper arms as well to keep the vintage look. Do you have a different suggestion?

 

[Edbert]

Not specifically, was wondering if maybe you'd use chrome or stainless or even black. The car is so beautiful the sort of dingy stock ones seem wrong somehow.

Hey maybe you could put those big red plastic ones with three blades...that'd be straight pimpin dog!

 

[SN65]

Hi Reen,

Did you get Shelbey's permision to put those stripes on the car?

Don't wanna risk a law suite do you.....

 

[68GT500KR_Vert]

I can'tr believe you didn't go with the fabric top

it just looks 100% better even more so on a car of that value.

 

[JEE740]

The car looks great. I do agree though, a cloth top would be better suited to the overall quality this car already has, like what Unique Performance uses on their convertibles. Don't get me wrong though, the quality of Reen's car is way better than anything that UP is slapping together. I know I can't wait to see this car all buttoned up, it's looking great!

Chris

 

[67FBack]

Door & Console Speakers

Reen,

I am now starting on my center console and I don't think 6 1/2" speakers will work. What size door and console speakers did you use?

BTW, the car is looking great. Funny how it takes so much time to finish all the small items. I don't think many people know how much time you can spend on all the little things that make a car go from nice.. to great!

 

[65mistress]

Did you trailer it out to Ohio or drive it? I'm guessing trailer, but how much fun would it be to go bombing down the interstate in that thing. I guess it would be more fun in Spring or Summer.